It was everything you wanted. It was everything Liverpool wanted.
It was everything Mo Salah wanted. Almost.
As the Premier League table becomes closer and closer together, is it enough to get Liverpool rising up the table and back in Champions League contention?
Excellent Hugo Ekitike
He was always a threat. On the ball and off the ball. Hugo Ekitike has made a marvelous start as a Liverpool player.
Making runs and getting into positions. He was a thorn in the side of Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke.
Ekitike got into so many good positions, he could have had five. In the end, he gets two and it is enough for Liverpool.
He comes off with 20 minutes to go because he is exhausted. He put everything into the game.
When you have been in a rut, those are arguably the two things you want the most. Goals and somebody who will run all day long for you.
Florian Wirtz's brilliance
He was outstanding. A game-changer for Liverpool's future and sublime in the present.
Everything you wanted. He was slick and precise, incredible on the ball he looks like a world-beater.
One suspects he chips the teabags into the bin with his right foot at home.
Make no mistake, Florian Wirtz is Liverpool's future. He is not a Liverpool goalscore yet but boy does he make everyone else better.
Seeing Ekitike and Wirtz together, the almost telepathy, and understanding of where the other is and where he is headed next is outstanding.
Superb Mo Salah
He was back. There have been rifts in public and then arms around each other in private.
It seems as though Arne Slot and Salah have made up, and it's for the best. If Salah can get firing again then Liverpool will benefit.
Salah looked like a different player today. Eager to defend, eager to be a part of a team. If you want to play for this great club, you have to be a great teammate, and he was.
Arne Slot is not weak or insecure and without going over the top making an example of Salah he has strengthened his hand.
The Liverpool crowd though, were happy to have Salah back and you wanted him to get the goal to cap it all. Sadly wasn't to be.
As Salah heads for AFCON the green shoots are growing. But Liverpool need to build on it.
There's a week from now to Spurs, a luxury, a time to get the next one right. Get it right and Liverpool are very much back in the hunt.